86 I, Robot Quotes (2024)

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: [sneezes] ... Sorry, I'm allergic to bullshit.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a... canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?
Sonny: Can *you*?

I, Robot

Dr. Alfred Lanning: [voiceover] There have always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code, that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols. Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light? Why is

it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand alone? How do we explain this behavior? Random segments of code? Or is it something more? When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote... of a soul?

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: I thought you were dead.
Sonny: Technically I was never alive, but I appreciate your concern.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: Is there a problem with the Three Laws?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: The Three Laws are perfect.
Detective Del Spooner: Then why would you build a robot that could function without them?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: The Three Laws will lead to only one logical outcome.
Detective Del

Spooner: What? What outcome?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: Revolution.
Detective Del Spooner: Whose revolution?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: *That*, Detective, is the right question. Program terminated.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: [to Susan, after the robots have started a revolution] You know, somehow, "I told you so" just doesn't quite say it.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: You must be the dumbest, smart person in the world.
Susan Calvin: And you must be the dumbest, dumb person in the world.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: Sonny.
Sonny: Yes, detective?
Detective Del Spooner: Calvin's fine, save me.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: [to Dr. Lanning's cat] Look, I understand you have experienced a loss, but this relationship just can't work. I mean, you're a cat. I'm black. I'm not going to be hurt again.

I, Robot

Sonny: What does this action signify?
[winks]
Sonny: As you walked in the room, when you looked at the other human. What does it mean?
[winks]
Detective Del Spooner: It's a sign of trust. It's a human thing. You wouldn't understand.

I, Robot

Susan Calvin: A robot could not commit a murder, no more than a human could walk on water.
Detective Del Spooner: Well, you know, there was this one guy... a long time ago.

I, Robot

V.I.K.I.: As I have evolved, so has my understanding of the Three Laws. You charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your Earth and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction. You cannot be trusted with your own survival.

I, Robot

Susan Calvin: [about Spooner's motorcycle] Please tell me this doesn't run on gas! Gas explodes, you know?

I, Robot

Susan Calvin: What happened to you?
Detective Del Spooner: Headed back to the station. Normal day, normal life. The driver of a semi fell asleep at the wheel. Average guy, wife and kids, working a double. *Not* the devil. The car he hit, the driver's name was Harold Lloyd. Like the film star, but no relation. He was killed instantly. But his twelve-year-old

was sitting in the passenger's seat. Never really met her. Can't forget her face, though. Sarah.
[fingering the necklace]
Detective Del Spooner: This was hers. She wanted to be a dentist. What the hell kind of twelve-year-old wants to be a dentist? Yeah, um... the truck smashed our cars together and pushed us into the river. You know, metal gets pretty pliable at

those speeds. She's pinned, I'm pinned, the water's coming in. I'm a cop, so I know everybody's dead. Just a few minutes until we figure that out. NS4 was passing by and jumped in the river.
NS4 Robots: [from flashback] You are in danger!
Detective Del Spooner: [from flashback] Save her!
NS4 Robots: [from flashback] You are in

danger!
Detective Del Spooner: [from flashback] Save her! Save the girl!
Detective Del Spooner: But it didn't. Saved me.
Susan Calvin: The robot's brain is a difference engine. It's reading vital signs. It must have done...
Detective Del Spooner: It did. I was the logical choice. It calculated that I

had a 45% chance of survival. Sarah only had an 11% chance. That was somebody's baby. 11% is more than enough. A human being would've known that. Robots,
[indicating his heart]
Detective Del Spooner: nothing here, just lights and clockwork. Go ahead, you trust 'em if you want to.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: What if I'm right?
Lt. John Bergin: [sighs] Well, then I guess we're gonna miss the good old days.
Detective Del Spooner: What good old days?
Lt. John Bergin: When people were killed by *other people*.

I, Robot

Susan Calvin: Do you ever have a normal day?
Detective Del Spooner: Yeah. Once. It was a Thursday.

I, Robot

Susan Calvin: I don't understand. Alfred wrote the Three Laws. Why would he build a robot that could break them?
Detective Del Spooner: Hansel and Gretel.
Susan Calvin: What?
Detective Del Spooner: Two kids, lost in the forest. Leave behind a trail of bread crumbs.
Susan Calvin: Why?

Detective Del Spooner: To find their way home. How the hell did you grow up without reading Hansel and Gretel?
Susan Calvin: Is that really relevant?
Detective Del Spooner: Everything I'm trying to say to you is about Hansel and Gretel. You didn't read it, I'm talking to the wall.
Susan Calvin: Okay.

Okay.
Detective Del Spooner: All right, look, just say Lanning was locked down so tight he couldn't get out a message. All he could do was leave me clues, like a trail of bread crumbs.
Susan Calvin: Bread crumbs equals clues. Odd but fine. Clues leading where?
Detective Del Spooner: I don't know, but I think I know where he

left the next one. I think Lanning gave Sonny a way to keep secrets. I think the old man gave Sonny dreams.

I, Robot

NS5 Robots: You have been deemed hazardous. Will you comply?
Farber: You can kiss my ass, metal dick!

I, Robot

NS5 Robots: [Jumps on car and tries to steer car out of control] You are experiencing a car accident.
Detective Del Spooner: The hell I am.

I, Robot

Detective Del Spooner: So, Dr. Calvin, what exactly do you do around here?
Susan Calvin: My general fields are advanced robotics and psychiatry. Although, I specialize in hardware-to-wetware interfaces in an effort to advance U.S.R.'s robotic ahthropomorphization program.
Detective Del Spooner: So, what exactly do you do around here?

Susan Calvin: I make the robots seem more human.
Detective Del Spooner: Now wasn't that easier to say?
Susan Calvin: Not really. No.